I applied through college or university. The process took 3 months. I interviewed at Microsoft (Redmond, WA) in Jan 2013
Interview
Applied through the recruiter at my university. I got an on campus interview. It consisted of three questions (design, test, and coding). I didn't hear back for about 2 months or so. They had me come to their Redmond campus. We ate lunch and had 4 forty five minute interviews. They were pretty tough.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
For a 2d array of integers, if there is a 0 in a position, make it's entire row and column all 0's.
I applied online. I interviewed at Microsoft (Melbourne)
Interview
After submitting an online application, I received a HackerRank assessment after passing the resume screening stage, then I was rejected after completing the assessment and did not proceed to further interview rounds.
Interview questions [1]
Question 1
The assessment consisted of two LeetCode-medium-level coding questions to be completed within 75 minutes.
45 mins technical interview with a member of their San fran team. Very relaxed and informal but questions were focused and lots of follow ups. Easy to schedule as was over video conferencing platform
Straightforward technical loop overall, with strong interviewers at every stage. I genuinely enjoyed the in-depth conversations around technical challenges and algorithmic problem-solving — the entire process felt well-structured and genuinely engaging.